ibe who hold the office of Bhumia
or village priest. The Bharias are well-known thieves, and they say
that the dark spots on the moon are caused by a banyan tree, which God
planted with the object of diminishing her light and giving thieves
a chance to ply their trade. If a Bhumia wishes to detect a thief,
he sits clasping hands with a friend, while a pitcher is supported on
their hands. An oblation is offered to the deity to guide the ordeal
correctly, and the names of suspected persons are recited one by one,
the name at which the pitcher topples over being that of the thief. But
before employing this method of detection the Bhumia proclaims his
intention of doing so on a certain date, and in the meantime places a
heap of ashes in some lonely place and invites the thief to deposit
the stolen article in the ashes to save himself from exposure. By
common custom each person in the village is required to visit the
heap and mingle a handful of ashes with it, and not infrequently
the thief, frightened at the Bhumia's powers of detection, takes the
stolen article and buries it in the ash-heap where it is duly found,
the necessity for resorting to the further method of divination being
thus obviated. Occasionally the Bharia in his character of a Hindu
will make a vow to pay for a recitation of the Satya Narayan Katha
or some other holy work. But he understands nothing of it, and if
the Brahman employed takes a longer time than he had bargained for
over the recitation he becomes extremely bored and irritated.

7. Social life and customs.

The scantiness of the Bharia's dress is proverbial, and the saying is
'_Bharia bhwaka, pwanda langwata_', or 'The Bharia is verily a devil,
who only covers his loins with a strip of cloth.' But lately he has
assumed more clothing. Formerly an iron ring carried on the wrist to
exorcise the evil spirits was his only ornament. Women wear usually
only one coarse cloth dyed red, spangles on the forehead and ears, bead
necklaces, and cheap metal bracelets and anklets. Some now have Hindu
ornaments, but in common with other low castes they do not usually
wear a nose-ring, out of respect to the higher castes. Women, though
they work in the fields, do not commonly wear shoes; and if these
are necessary to protect the feet from thorns, they take them off and
carry them in the presence of an elder or a man of higher caste. They
are tattooed with various devices, as a cock, a crown, a native chair